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The new McLaren supercar will be officially named the MP4-12C when it is revealed later this week. Ron Dennis, who heads up McLaren Automotive, revealed details of the much-anticipated supercar - codenamed P11 - in an interview over the weekend.

The former head honcho of McLaren's F1 team, who quit the sport earlier this year, has ambitious plans for the sports car manufacturer with the MP4-12C the first of three planned models.

He told The Sunday Times: "It's an iconic design, like the E-Type Jaguar and, on all performance parameters and price, will be better than our competition."

It was revealed the MP4-12C will use a high-revving V8 engine, seven-speed gearbox, carbon fibre chassis and an automatic variable rate chassis.

"We're building more than a car, we're building a brand," said Dennis with McLaren Automotive planning a Porsche 911 and Audi R8-rivalling £70k supercar along with a top-end £300k-plus hypercar to rival the Porsche Carrera GT.

Ignoring the Mercedes McLaren SLR, the MP4-12C will be the first new McLaren since the fabled F1 of the Nineties - a car still heralded by many purists as the ultimate supercar.

Auto Trader is sworn to secrecy at the moment over the full official details of the MP4-12C until Wednesday. But suffice to say you should be quite excited about this two-seat gull-winged supercar which should give those considering the new Ferrari 458 Italia something serious to think about.

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